Hi! Our names are Susanna Davies-Crook and Matt Maude.
We're the founders and hosts of Write Club.
Within this webpage, you'll find details of our upcoming event and partnership with the Royal Academy Schools.
W H A T I S W R I T E C L U B ?
Write Club is a community of creatives that come together to write, discuss and share work. Whether writing is your career, expression or lifelong dream, we create spaces to explore, experiment and expand your writing practice.
We run monthly events with high profile guest speakers, bi-annual retreats and regular writing supper clubs all designed to establish a routine of writing, inspire confidence and create community in what can often feel like a solo profession.
No previous writing experience is required to attend any of our sessions.
W R I T I N G C I R C L E S :
For the last three years, we've partnered with Soho House to run the writer's development program for their membership. Every month we invite an award-winning or industry leading guest speaker to host our four hour long session from 6pm across one of the Soho House locations in London.
Gathered around a table rather than a moderated stage, we invite the guest speaker to talk about their origin story, career journey, writing practice and what lessons they've learnt along the way. It's all very informal and we take pride in the convivial and social exchange of ideas and leanings. Write Club is first and foremost a cooperative peer-to-peer community, and we welcome all energies and temperaments, there are opportunities to share as much or as little as you feel.
At the end of the opening Q&A, our guest speaker sets a writing exercise that all participants are invited to respond to in real time, with usually an hour to write independently but together. The last hour is dedicated to participant's readings the texts they've created over the course of the event (if you want to!) in the company of the guest speaker.
It's a format we'll be duplicating in the Life Drawing Room of the RA Schools.
T I M I N G S :
Here are the timings for the event on Friday 17th of January:
18:00 - Event begins
18:15 - Event and participant introductions
18:30 - Guest speaker talk begins
19:00 - Exercise set
19:45 - Drinks Break
20:15 - Writing Time
20:45 - Readings
21:45 - Event Ends / Social
22:00 - Room cleared
F I L M :
At Soho, we created the film below as a means to illustrate the community we've built over the last three years.
We hope it reflects the atmosphere, ethos and feeling of safety we strive to create in all of our sessions.
We asked Emma Clarke, Head of Digital Membership at Soho House to provide a reference about the work we've delivered at Soho:
“We have been lucky enough to have Susanna and Matt host Write Club here at Soho Works for the past two years. The events they host here are truly beautiful - they’ve created an authentic community where participants collaborate and communicate with one another all the time - something that is priceless to me as Head of Digital Membership at Soho House.
In addition to membership retention, we’ve recorded the following data from the Write Club partnership:
- Oscar, Bafta, Emmy, Golden Globe and Olivier award winning guest speakers invited every month
- Over 350+ Soho members attending Write Club events over the last 35 months
- Participants retaining Soho membership in order to attend Write Club
- Monthly event sells out within 24 hours
- Write Club event capacity increased in 2023 as a result of popularity throughout 2022”
R E F E R E N C E :
– Emma Clarke, Head of Digital Membership at Soho House
P H O T O G R A P H Y :
At every Write Club session we host, Matt records parts of it on a 8K video camera. The quality of footage is such that we are able to pull screenshots to send as high res photos.
The day after every session, we send out these photos to all the participants who have attended so they can be shared as desired.
Included below are images from our event with the Oscar winner and movement coach of the films, 'Elvis', 'Bohemian Rhapsody', 'The Crown' and 'Saltburn', Polly Bennett
Laurie Nunn
Emmy Award Winning Creator and Showrunner of
'Sex Education'
Andrew Davies
BAFTA Award Winning Screenwriter
'War and Peace', 'House of Cards', 'Bridget Jones Diary'
Selina Lim
Emmy and Bafta Award Winning Screenwriter
'Sex Education', 'Hanna'
Daisy Goodwin
Author, Screenwriter and Show-runner
'ITV's Victoria', 'My Last Duchess'
Isis Davis
Actor and Writer
'Killing Eve', 'Fast Girls'
Temi Wilkey
Writer, Actor & Director
'Sex Education', 'The High Table'
Jennifer Higgie
Author, Screenwriter and Arts Editor
'The Mirror and the Palette', Former Frieze Magazine Editor
Leon Mayne
Screenwriter and Producer
'End of the F*cking World, 'Brothers With No Game'
Jon Brittain
Olivier Winning Playwright & Screenwriter
'Rotterdam', 'The Crown'
Polly Bennett
Movement Director & Choreographer
'Elvis', 'Saltburn', 'Bohemian Rhapsody'
Naomi Sheldon
Actor, Producer & Screenwriter
'The Girlfriend', 'The Good Girl'
Esther Freud
Author
'I Couldn't Love You More', 'Hideous Kinky', 'The Sea House'
Henry Mance
Chief Features Writer, Financial Times
'How to Love Animals and Protect our Planet'
Mike Figgis
Oscar Nominated Director and Screenwriter
'Leaving Las Vegas', 'Timecode', 'Internal Affairs'
Luke Jennings
Screenwriter and Show Creator
'Killing Eve'
Travis Alabanza
Author, Writer & Performer
'None of the Above', Burgerz', 'Overflow'
Anthony Anaxagorou
Poet, Author and Royal Society of Literature Fellow
'Heritage Aesthetics', 'The Blink That Killed The Eye'
Vinay Patel
Screenwriter & Playwright
'Murdered by My Father', 'Doctor Who'
Daniel Bailey
Artistic Director at the Bush Theatre
'Wolves on Road', 'August in England'
Katherine Angel
Author
'Sex Will Be Good Again', 'Daddy Issues'
Emily Hayward-Whitlock
Screenwriters Agent and Head of Book to Film
at The Artists Partnership
Amelia Abraham
Author and Journalist
'Queer Intentions', 'We Can Do Better Than This'
P R E V I O U S G U E S T S P E A K E R S :
O T H E R W R I T E C L U B E V E N T S :
In 2025, we're running a residency at The House of Koko, replicating our Write Club Sessions once a month in one of the incredible spaces in Koko.
Later this year, we'll be running an Agent's Day where Write Club participants would have the opportunity to meet and talk with Literary Agents, pitching project outlines or simply getting advice.
Our Commissioning Series will follow a similar structure - inviting commissioners from the BBC, Film 4, Amazon and Netflix to join a panel discussion before the opportunity for Write Club members to pitch ideas, all over drinks and food.
Every year, we run two writing retreats across the UK. These Retreats are built by writers for writers - accessible and affordable - with each location sourced to create stress-free environments where both individual ideas and group discussion can flow freely.
All meals are provided for by our team. Yoga and mediation sessions kick off the day. Every part of our Retreats is designed to enable attendees to turn off from the distractions of everyday life and to tune into the stories they want to create.
Our annual Retreats take place in late Spring and early Autumn.
If you'd like to join one of our four day long Retreats in 2025, please hit the contact button
For more details about our Retreats, watch the film below:
T E S T I M O N I A L S F R O M P A R T I C P A N T S :
“I sit on the Inclusivity Board at Soho House and the Committee at Soho Works. I go to a lot of the events here and the Houses, and I don’t feel like I’ve got the sense of community from other workshops I’ve attended. We have a lot of people that come in and create space, which is great, but all of the connections I have in Soho are a result of the people I met at Write Club. It feels like family rather than just a community”.
- Melissa Sinclair
"As a new writer, Write Club has been transformative for me. It’s given me a sense of community, access to inspiration, and, most importantly, the confidence to believe I can pursue writing seriously. It’s not just an event—it’s a safe haven where I feel seen and supported, a space where I’ve been able to truly hone my ‘voice’ and explore my creativity without judgement.
- Adwoa Akoto
"The Write Club team run fantastic sessions which I’d recommend to anyone with an interest in writing. Their guest speakers - often impressively big names! - talk about their careers and use their experience to offer a mix of advice and encouragement that usefully straddles the border between ‘inspiring’ and ‘realistic’. Plus, there are always ingenious exercises to get everyone in the room writing there and then, often in ways they might not have done so before - and it’s a treat to hear the results of these read aloud. I’ve really enjoyed getting involved with their sessions - and I can see that any organisation which has an interest in driving creativity could do well to book Write Club, too."
- Toby Smith
"Matt and Susanna have done an incredible job of curating guest speakers each month that span industries, genders, races, sexual orientations, social classes and life experiences. And it’s this effort that attracts an equally diverse community to Write Club that makes for one of the richest, most welcoming, caring and inspiring communities I’ve been a part of.”
- Jamie Tomkins
